Abstract
The extent to which perceptually suppressed face stimuli are still processed has been extensively studied using the continuous flash suppression paradigm (CFS). Studies that rely on breaking CFS (b-CFS), in which the time it takes for an initially suppressed stimulus to become detectable is measured, have provided evidence for relatively complex processing of invisible face stimuli. In contrast, adaptation and neuroimaging studies have shown that perceptually suppressed faces are only processed for a limited set of features, such as its general shape. In this study, we asked whether perceptually suppressed face stimuli presented in their commonly experienced configuration would break suppression faster than when presented in an uncommonly experienced configuration. This study was motivated by a recent neuroimaging study showing that commonly experienced face configurations are more strongly represented in the fusiform face area. Our findings revealed that faces presented in commonly experienced configurations indeed broke suppression faster, yet this effect did not interact with face inversion suggesting that, in a b-CFS context, perceptually suppressed faces are potentially not processed by specialized (high-level) face processing mechanisms. Rather, our pattern of results is consistent with an interpretation based on the processing of more basic visual properties such as convexity.
Highlights
The extent to which invisible stimuli are still processed has become a popular line of research over the last decades (Dehaene & Changeux, 2011; Hesselmann & Moors, 2015)
Behavioral studies relying on adaptation and neuroimaging studies call into question whether the results obtained using the b-continuous flash suppression (CFS) paradigm are genuinely attributable to high-level configural processing of the invisible face
The goal of this study was to assess whether face stimuli presented in their commonly experienced configurations would break suppression faster than the same stimuli presented in other configurations
Summary
The extent to which invisible stimuli are still processed has become a popular line of research over the last decades (Dehaene & Changeux, 2011; Hesselmann & Moors, 2015). One compelling paradigm to render visual stimuli invisible is continuous flash suppression (CFS) (Tsuchiya & Koch, 2005). In CFS, a salient dynamic pattern composed of various colored shapes is presented to one eye while another stimulus is presented to the other eye. Due to the dynamic nature of the mask, the other stimulus is perceptually suppressed and invisible to observers for a time period on the order of seconds. CFS has been implemented in various ways to study processing of perceptually suppressed stimuli, one being the breaking CFS paradigm (b-CFS) (Stein, Hebart & Sterzer, 2011; Gayet, Van Der Stigchel & Paffen, 2014). The contrast of the initially suppressed stimulus is gradually increased until it causes a perceptual breakthrough
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